been reading a lot about this little man, so i was very excited to find one. missed out on a lot of opportunities to cop a cheap one from craigslist, but still got mine at a reasonable price on ebay (220 incl. shipping).

i really like it. just wanted to share my thoughts on it for anybody who'd be interested in getting one.

ALSO TRYNA GIVE BACK TO THE SP-FAMILIA THAT INSPIRED AND ENCOURAGED DIS JOURNEY TO THE 505 ISLANDS

like:- chopping feature: great to use and then fine-tune exactly in the edit screen. another great perk about the chopping feature is that it doesn't take up any additional space in your pad banks memory-wise. you can play around with the chops you made, and if you want to use it in a sequence, all you have to do is copy it (using clipboard, very easy) to a user (internal) or card (external) bank. this is useful as you can fine tune these chops, rehearse what you'll need or not need, and then bring it in to use only when you deem necessary.- sequencing: finally able to sequence patterns of different bpms! super convenient metronome (that can be turned off) with the ability to jump in and out of quantizing. also, deleting portions of your performance is pretty easy as well as you can jump in and out of this as well. you can also JUMP in and out of rehearsal mode with text-indication on the screen that yer doing so. ostensibly you could do a live midi "loop" performance within a bpm with the metronome off (for all you sp-performance ballers out here)- parts: you get 4 parts per pattern. pretty much like midi tracks that can be muted on and off. this is great considering... v v v- pattern copy: easy copying of an entire pattern. great to use with parts so you can delete elements of one pattern quite easily while adding in different shit, enabling you to go back and forth between different rhythms or for transitions- wave editing: getting to see a waveform again is quite comforting. the wave is a bit long for my taste tbh but it's better than nothing- time-sensitive effects + bpm: great for time-sensitive/reliant effects like delay because it'll be set to the bpm timing of the pattern you are in. useful for shit like that dakim looping but also to have delays work in time and capable of switching accordingly based upon bpm changes in a pattern *cool shit* set up the delay on the ext. src as a loop pedal, whose timing will be based on pattern bpm, while a sequence is playing in the background. this is extra *cool shit* when you can switch to a pattern of the same bpm with different rhythms WHILE CONTINUING YOUR EXT SRC LOOPING FLAWLESSLY/LAWLESSLY - fx buttons: kinda threw me for a loop at first but now it's kinda nice. whenever you wanna fuck about the effects, you enter a screen dialog for 3/4 buttons. fx info will show you a visual of the current parameters for the selected fx. you choose yer effect by (...) FX SELECT, which just gives you a list instead of numbers. i think the FX on/off button is useful because shit can get confusing when you got a real fx stew boiling.

meh:- effects sound good, i can never really tell what is better than what tbh. they sound more 303 like (most likely because they were made around the same time, probably with a lot of same shit?)- wait time is obviously not at 404 or 404sx level. feels quicker than the 303, however, but almost anything feels quicker than 303 wait time.

obviously a lot of SPs have their faults, but there's probably a way to figure out a negotiable middle ground b/w what you wanna do and the sp's limitations.

personal disappointments :- no on-the-fly sample editing: you have to enter a screen to mess with GATE, LOOP, REVERSE, START/END and other shit. kinda sucks tbh because that is a huge asset of the other sp's powers. this means you can control those parameters during pattern playing (in case you were trying to get all twisted in yer performance, which would rock)- midi controller dreams are fucked: i dont know about syncing it up with other stuff but i was really hoping to use the 505 to midi control my 404. this could be done--for only a certain amount of 404 banks--with an intermediate program (max, ableton, etc.) that could translate the 505's midi output notes as corresponding 404 midi receiving notes. as it stands now, they don't match up with the 404's card bank, only a bit of the 404's internal banks. not even that shit works fully, either, as only a couple of pads responding to midi output.- smartmedia: really detest smartmedia and it's proneness to shenanigans. this is like hooking back up with that evil fucking ex-girlfriend. damn. I DONT TRUST IT BUT I'LL DO WHAT I GOTTA DO

i really do like this. works great with the sp-404. lots of possibilities and configurations, but would also work well as your monogamous life partner. hopefully i'll have some *EXCLUSIVE* sp-famourm tracks tracks to share with yall soon

meh:- effects sound good, i can never really tell what is better than what tbh. they sound more 303 like (most likely because they were made around the same time, probably with a lot of same shit?)

yes, maybe the converters are quite the same even if they sound a bit different (i have a 303 too)

GEE WEAVER wrote:

personal disappointments :- no on-the-fly sample editing: you have to enter a screen to mess with GATE, LOOP, REVERSE, START/END and other shit. kinda sucks tbh because that is a huge asset of the other sp's powers. this means you can control those parameters during pattern playing (in case you were trying to get all twisted in yer performance, which would rock)

the main difference between sps202-303-404-555 AND 505/606 is that theyre more conceived to do tracks/songs on studio, so a more deep seq...

GEE WEAVER wrote:

- midi controller dreams are fucked: i dont know about syncing it up with other stuff but i was really hoping to use the 505 to midi control my 404. this could be done--for only a certain amount of 404 banks--with an intermediate program (max, ableton, etc.) that could translate the 505's midi output notes as corresponding 404 midi receiving notes. as it stands now, they don't match up with the 404's card bank, only a bit of the 404's internal banks. not even that shit works fully, either, as only a couple of pads responding to midi output.

there are some interesting threads about midi on the 505. Boss/Roland midi on SP machine is not good, but at least, with the 505, you can midi out every 4 parts of your choice...so any of the 4 parts can midi out its own channel, so theorically you can send notes to 4 different channels...a sort of multitimbral 4 parts...sure, this is limited to some banks, but it's better than nothing...(on the 606 you cannot do that)...

dope machine sold mine a few days and got a mv 8800 . the sp 505 is my favorite out of the sp series I know alot of cats like the 303 mainly cause madlib used it but the workflow on the 505 is alot smoother plus its got a dope little sequencer on it.

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